Union Invivo

No leading practices were identified in the governance and strategy area.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company is committed to restoring ecosystems, and has a time-bound target for its ecosystem restoration activities.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company has a target to improve soil health in its production or sourcing practices and reports progress against it. Furthermore, the company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. It also discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process, including frequency and channels, for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company states that it has a materiality assessment, it has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. This should include how external stakeholders are involved in the process. Also, the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including social inclusion and nutrition. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets. Additionally, although the company states that it has a CSR committee who is responsible for monitoring its CSR strategy, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its CSR strategy covers both environmental and social strategy. Furthermore, it could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Lastly, the company could improve its transparency by disclosing whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not have a commitment or time-bound targets to minimise or avoid ecosystem conversion, and does not disclose activities working towards these goals. Furthermore, the company does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

GHG emissions
The company should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions as well as report progress against them. Crucially, the company needs to reduce its scope 1,2 and 3 emissions and its targets need to align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company plans to develop digital tools for managing biodiversity impact but has not yet assessed its impacts on nature within its own operations. Although it has a responsible procurement program, there is no evidence that the company has evaluated its impacts on nature in its upstream activities. The company has not disclosed assessments of its dependencies on nature, either within its own operations or in its upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
The company has an opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its own operations and its supplier locations. It could also disclose existing species populations existing in or adjacent to both its own and its suppliers’ locations, as well as the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Solid and air pollution
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company does not disclose its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. The company has an opportunity to report how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company has an opportunity to engage with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal. The company has an opportunity to disclose quantitative evidence of reductions in water withdrawal across its own operations. The company does not regularly report on water pollution. The company does not disclose targets to reduce water pollution.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company should provide insights into its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks, with a focus on specific locations and activities within its operations. It also has an opportunity to incorporate anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses into its contracts with business relationships.

To enhance transparency, the company should clarify the accessibility of its mechanism for reporting bribery and corruption concerns, ensuring that it is open to all stakeholders with the option to remain anonymous.

Additionally, the company should consider adopting a policy that outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement while explicitly stating that it refrains from making political contributions. Providing information on lobbying expenditures and the requirement for third-party lobbyists to adhere to the company’s policies would further demonstrate its commitment to ethical practices.

Provide and promote decent work
The company can enhance its transparency by introducing a policy requiring its suppliers to prioritize workers’ health and safety. It can also share its monitoring methods for supplier health and safety performance.

Furthermore, the company has an opportunity to set clear, time-bound targets for paying all workers a living wage and explain how it determines this wage in different regions. It can also detail its strategies for supporting suppliers in achieving living wages.

In terms of gender equality, the company can make a public commitment and establish time-bound targets. Additionally, it should consider increasing the representation of women on its board of directors and disclosing salary ratios to reinforce its commitment to diversity and gender equity.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a policy statement that commits to respecting human rights recognized as fundamental rights at work by the ILO, and extend this expectation to its suppliers. In terms of risk identification, the company has the chance to describe the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts, covering both its own operations and its supply chain. Furthermore, it can outline a process for assessing and identifying its salient human rights issues. Finally, the company could establish a global system to address its salient human rights issues.